1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for receiving image data from an external apparatus and printing the received data on a cut sheet of paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since a dot-matrix printer prints an image on a continuous sheet of paper, the entire area of the sheet can be used as a printing area.
In a laser printer for performing printing on a cut sheet of paper, however, non-printing areas are provided on the leading and trailing ends and the right and left ends in consideration of possible skewing upon conveyance of a sheet or during fixing. For this reason, actual printing areas are different between the dot-matrix and laser printers even when the same form length is designated, i.e., an area of a cut sheet is smaller than that of a continuous sheet.
Conventional laser printers, however, recognize a designated form length (cut sheet length) as a printing area and prints printing data.
When an image is printed in conventional laser printers and the entire surface of a cut sheet is considered a printing area, therefore, some or all data in a non-printing area are lost, as shown in FIG. 12.